Page 164 of Ashes of Sin and Stardust

“Point taken. I’ll get you a step stool.” I took the pan from her and hooked it myself.

“So I’m not in trouble, right?”

“You’redefinitelyin trouble. Come on.” I spanked her ass once just for the fun of it.

“Hey... you’re going to let me come later, right?”

I smirked and looked down at her. “Depends.”

“Depends on what?”

“Depends on how good you decide to be today.”

She glared. “I don’t like you anymore.”

I laughed. “You’ll like me again in an hour.”

She growled as I led her towards the door.

The first stop wasJulia’s shop on the outskirts of town. Alice was in a better mood once I distracted her by letting her choose the music, and she chatted and yammered the whole way during the car ride until we pulled up to Julia’s shop.

She was what my mother would have called “a pile of spaghetti.” Every thought she had led her another direction, and then reminded her of some other random story. In the course of ten minutes, she managed to tell me about the time she almost drowned in a kiddie pool at the age of fifteen, a traumatic show-and-tell situation at age five, and something about a disintegrated pet hamster.I couldn’t follow most of it.

We climbed out of the car and she continued to chatter, “Oh my gosh, Julia’s place! I’m so excited. I haven’t seen her in like, forever. She used to come by The Underground all the time and try to sell her stuff! She stopped though. Oh, I wonder if that’s because she got into the shop? I got most of my stuff from her. It’s so comfy and she does custom work. Oh shit, did she make the belt? I bet she did. Do you think maybe–”

I cut her off, placing my hand over her mouth. “I’m glad you’re excited, little bug, but you’re wearing me out, and we’ve just gotten started. Tone it down about twenty percent, or I’ll be forced to gag you.”

She said something in response, but it was muffled by my hand. “What?” I asked, removing my hand from her mouth.

“I said... yes Sir.” She smiled innocently and waltzed into the shop.

“No, that’s not what you said.” But she was already inside.Fine. I’ll get it out of you later.

When I got inside, Alice was already at the counter chatting with Julia. The little blonde-haired blue-eyed kitten was an excellent artist, able to take leather, metal, and chains and turn them into some of the best kink gear I’d ever used. Once I got my hands on some of her stuff, I’d bought an old warehouse and opened a toy store, asking her to run it full time and fill it with as much of her own work as she felt inclined. It had allowed her to leave her crappy day job at a cafe and work on her art full time, and it added another stream of income for me.

Julia and Alice were chatting at the desk, leaning forward towards each other like they were swapping very important secrets. They both glanced my way when I came in. Julia straightened, but Alice ignored me.

Julia’s eyes darted back and forth between the two of us as if she wasn’t sure if she should give her attention to her boss or her customer. I alleviated the issue when I came up behind Alice and put my hands on her shoulders.

Julia’s eyes widened in surprise and her mouth popped open into a little “O.”

“Julia. I’m here for that order I placed with you. I also need you to find a few skirts for Alice. Preferably something... dangerously short.”

“Uh... okay. Yes. Yes sir. Okay. Right. Dangerously short. For Alice because you two are, uh... Wow. Um. Okay.”

Julia had a habit of not being in control of her mouth, and it was pretty adorable. The more flustered she got, the less in control she was of what she said. It had become a running joke at The Lounge not to tell her secrets, because she wouldn’t be able to keep it to herself if you got her flustered enough.

“Is Ozzy here?”

“Yes,” she said, pointing towards the back. “Ozzy!” she shouted, then took Alice’s hand and dragged her towards the leather display. “So, wait. You and Weston? How long? What? Holy bananas.” Their conversation faded away.

Ozzy came out looking as jaded as ever. Between the resin fumes, the leather stains, and the weed I knew he kept in the back, he was probably high on something, if not a combination of all of it.

“Wazzup boss man!” He grinned widely. His long messy brown hair fell past his shoulders, and dark circles under his eyes made him look like a racoon with his pale skin.

“Ozzy,” I said. “I need to pick out something from you. Metal,” I whispered. “Not a collar, but something like it. Bracelet or an anklet, maybe.”

Ozzy led me into the back of the warehouse. At the workshop out back, I could see the sparks flying from whatever metal project Eddy was working on. He left his forge and came into the shop to greet me when he noticed Ozzy and I through the window.

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